If three partly burned candles of different heights represent adults and children, which one is most like the child? Which one is most like the adults?

Right! . . . the shortest is like an older person and the tallest like a child,

who still has his whole life ahead of him. Children may seem like small lights in the congregation, but we dare not overlook their potential as the leaders of the next two generations. During the past week Charles and Joan Farley, Educational consultants with International Partnership Ministries, INC, challenged and sharpened our committed CCC Sunday school staff to aiming at that long-term objective.

Joan gave testimony to this principle in her own family. Her grandfather, an alcoholic, was changed when he trusted Christ. He left behind a heritage that can still be traced today at family reunions, where about 100 people gather, only four of whom are not believers in Christ. One changed life can impact two or three generations. Many leaders in Christian history were saved as children, including the early church father Polycarp, Bible commentator Matthew Henry, and hymn-writer Isaac Watts.

In three sessions with the staff, the Farleys emphasized the need for parents and Sunday school teachers to take the long term view in teaching and training. We are praying that God will touch the lives of CCC children, so that they will be able to teach their own children and grandchildren the truths of Scripture (Psalm 78). Parents are first in line in this process; the Sunday school staff is ready to assist them. Even if parents fall down on the job, the church is committed to making an impact that can last a lifetime.

How do we take the long view? We learned three things:

- Be able to lead our children to faith in Christ. This involves mastering a simple and clear presentation of the gospel (wordless book, the Romans Road, or similar approaches. Dads and moms should be sensitive to the work of the Holy Spirit in their children, as evidenced by a conviction of sin.

- Be able to disciple our children. Knowledge of the Word of God should lead to wisdom, then action through new godly habits, and finally reproduction (Colossians 1:9-11).

- Stand ready to assist Sunday school teachers in their ministry by. . . * reading the Sunday school Bible text aloud in the child's mother tongue Saturday evening; * helping the child learn his memory verse; * encouraging the child to bring his Bible to church with him (of course this means dads and moms will give the example themselves); * being sure the child brings along other materials; * encouraging participation in the class; * praying regularly for every child and let the Sunday school teacher know how to pray for the child.

It's a sobering privilege for our staff and parents to labor together under God for the future of our CCC children. We pray God will give us the kind of fruit the Farleys spoke to us about in late September!

Controversial Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has bemoaned the massive influx of migrants from Syria and Iraq through Turkey as a menace to Europe's "Christian" society.

He reportedly wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “Everything which is now taking place before our eyes threatens to have explosive consequences for the whole of Europe. Europe’s response is madness. We must acknowledge that the European Union’s misguided immigration policy is responsible for this situation. . . . Irresponsibility is the mark of every European politician who holds out the promise of a better life to immigrants and encourages them to leave everything behind and risk their lives in setting out for Europe. If Europe does not return to the path of common sense, it will find itself laid low in a battle for its fate.”

He added, "Those arriving have been raised in another religion, and represent a radically different culture. Most of them are not Christians, but Muslims. This is an important question, because Europe and European identity is rooted in Christianity. . . . Is it not worrying in itself that European Christianity is now barely able to keep Europe Christian? There is no alternative, and we have no option but to defend our borders”.

He says he wants to control the flow of migrants in Hungary in order to register all comers and thus enforce EU law, which requires that immigrants stay in the country by which they enter Europe. Thus he justifies the 175-km long razor wire fence strung out on Hungary's border with Serbia and now being backed up with a concrete wall. He's sure migrants will not want to stay in Hungary, Poland, Estonia or Slovakia; instead they will want to move to Germany and other northern countries where the social welfare system is better able to meet their needs.

Meanwhile EU leaders here in Luxembourg and Brussels have been trying to find a more equitable solution to the migration surge. Chancellor Merkel and EU president Jean-Claude Juncker have asked that other EU states take on the burden of hosting refugees from the war-ravaged Middle East, and that this burden-sharing be proportionate.

The long and short of this is that when these proposals are adopted, we can expect more people from North Africa and the Middle East showing up on Luxembourg's streets. The children will be in the schools side-by-side with local children, and the Grand Duchy's Muslim population will experience another expansion. What should we think about these new realities? How should we respond? I've been thinking about the following:

1. Europe is not Christian. Mr. Orbán's concerns are understandable, but he is off target when he suggests Europe is "Christian". There are no Christian countries, only Christians, for Christianity is a personal issue, not a matter of the state. And even if a nation or region could be considered Christian, Europe has long ago abandoned the heritage of the Bible and a significant presence of believers convinced and committed to Jesus Christ. Europe's departure from -- indeed, rejection of -- the authority of the Scriptures has left a vacuum that cannot press out other world views. Europe cannot remain neutral; it will become increasingly secular or increasingly Muslim. But she cannot hope to survive on the crumbs of a nominal Christianity's waning ethic.

2. Individual Christians are all pilgrims. A friend of mine mentioned the other day that pilgrims don't carry their mattresses. Christians are citizens of a coming kingdom, where Jesus Christ will set up a rule of justice and mercy. Until that kingdom is revealed at His return, His people are "just passing through". As the apostle Peter wrote, "I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly desires, which wage war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11). We dare not become too attached to the priorities and things of this life.

3. Christians are called to give away their lives, even before enemies. If people of another faith enter Europe, what does the Christian do? He reaches out to them, even if he knows some may betray him. Jesus said, "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you; in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:44-48 NASB).

If things in our little country begin to get a lot harder, only the love of Christ can motivate us to reach out to people in need. This will begin with announcing the gospel message, and it will be backed up with acts of kindness. Christians have the best possible reasons for living this way. We should be able to go further and longer than people with only a secular agenda.

Beginning in the autumn 2015 young people ages 11 to 13 will meet on Saturday afternoons once a month for a mix of Bible devotions and singing, followed by fun activities.

You are invited to come, meet friends, enjoy the devotional time and participate in activities and outgoings such as climbing, mini golf, visits to museums, cooking, survival training and other great times together!

On Saturday friends who attended Softball Bible Camps beginning in 1996 gathered for a time of remembering some of the good times shared in past year.

Ryan Bernardo and a team of CCC young adults planned the day, which started cloudy and finished in warm clear sunshine.

We began with an icebreaker game that got everyone to share some interesting personal facts, and then moved on to some of our favorite recollections of SBC experiences. We recalled the origin of the day camps in 1996, when the CCC youth group leader Dave Ford died in a plane crash in Dubrovnik. His children mentioned that he had hoped to invite their school classmates to play some softball with them next door in a cow pasture, and to speak to those young people about Christ. The SBC was held each year from 1996 on through 2007, after which the church launched summer Adventure camps. We recalled that God regularly answered prayers for good weather right at the last minute by giving us sun within a half hour of the beginning of the morning activities. There were many opportunities to speak of God's Word during the noon Bible times.

We watched a slide show from earlier years prepared by several of the CCC youth, as well as a viedo greeting from Bonnie Leithmann. As a review of things we'd learned in previous camps, Ryan reminded us of the unique and exclusive claims of Christ from John 14:6, "De Jesus huet him geäntwert: 'Ech sinn de Wee, d'Wourecht an d'Liewen. Kee kënnt bei de Papp, et sief dann duerch mech' " (De Jean c. 2014).

After a barbecue lunch we traveled to the football pitch in Cessange where we enjoyed a couple of hours of competition. Not everyone who came in the morning could join us for the competition, but we had a great time together! It left us hoping for more opportunities in future!

While visiting the Whit Tuesday Sprangprocessioun in Echternach a few years ago, I interviewed a few tired young people relaxing in the late morning sunshine at the end of their hop around the town. I asked one of the gals what the procession meant to her and if people still believed in what it represented.

"Some people attending in wheelchairs still believe St. Willibrord could heal them," she said. "For them the hopping procession has a spiritual meaning". "And what about you?" I asked. "Oh, for me and my friends, this is a chance to see each other toward the end of a year of university study, chill out and have a beer. That's all".

I wasn't surprised at her answer. Europeans say they believe in God less and less. Religious services seem far emptier than after WW II, when people's lives were threatened daily. Why should we bother to believe in God today? We have everything we need: opportunities for education, a secure job, a comfortable home, exotic holiday venues to be explored, and a generous pension to bring us coasting comfortably into old age. The state social security system cares for the body. What more could you want? What more do we need? God? He's for people far less sophisticated and a time more menacing than our own. Yawn . . . we've all outgrown Him, don't you think? We used to have Willibrord, now we have the pharmacy.

At least two comments come to mind. First, it isn't necessarily true that Europeans after the war were eager to believe in God. I was born in the Netherlands and lived my early years in Kerkrade, a mining town close to Maastricht. My father--a Dutch clergyman married to an American wife--was viewed as the rich man on the block. After all, he had a telephone and a Vespa. Of course he believed in God! If all the neighbors had as much as he did, they'd believe too! But if you go to that town today and look at the BMWs and Audis parked along the street, you'll not find a neighborhood crammed with Hollanders grateful for God's bountiful material gifts. On the contrary--their spiritual condition hasn't warmed at all.

Secondly, the kind of faith that relies on God to do for us whatever we demand, just as long as we pay our dues, is not biblical faith. It's an insurance contract. When we moved to the Grand Duchy I read André Heiderscheid's little booklet on Luxembourg's infatuation with security. He argued there that in matters of faith--as in everything else--Luxembourgers viewed religion as an insurance policy. You want the best possible coverage for the lowest possible premium. If there is a God, then you'd better be covered. But just in case it's all a hoax, don't waste your life paying too much for a policy you don't need anyhow.

On the other hand, the kind of faith the Bible describes as pleasing to God simply takes Him at his word, just like a child trusts his dad when the father says to jump into his arms. Abraham had that kind of trust when, being "fully assured that what He had promised He was able also to perform", he believed God would give him and Sarah a son in their old age (Romans 4:21). Job had that kind of faith as well when both riches and family were stripped away in a single day, yet he said, "naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord . . . shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 1:21; 2:10).

I agree we don't need a renewed faith in St. Willibrord (neither Jesus nor the apostles ever encouraged people to pray to the dead). But we do need to set aside our foolish trust in ease and material comforts and turn to the Creator, who made us for Himself. We will discover Him if we read the book He has written for all who want to know Him--gifts or no gifts. When was the last time you opened it?

Well, that's what we heard last week at a fascinating conference for parents at the International School. Dr. Douglas Ota, an expert in helping parents get their children successfully through the adjustment period after an international move, mentioned that Descartes' famous dictum Cogito ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am") should be replaced by "I am seen, therefore I am".

Ota explained the importance of a parent's look of awareness as a child deals with being unseen and misunderstood in a new context. We never outgrow the need for safe attachments and relationships. He did not appeal to Scripture in his presentation, but I was reminded of how crucial relationships are, simply because we are made in God's image. He is relational within himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so we reach out for the very same stable loving bonds with one another.

The Old Testament character Hagar came to mind. Obsessed with jealousy over this younger woman by whom Abraham had managed to conceive a son, Sarai put her young slave out of the house--she was a competitor for Abraham's affections and a reproach to Sarai's own sterility (Genesis 16:7-14). Hagar left for the Egyptian border and met the angel of the Lord at a spring of water on the way to Shur. The angel told her to return to Sarai and submit to her authority. She would have a son who would grow up into a combative man living to the east of his brothers. Hagar always remembered that experience and called God "El-roi"--"You are a God who sees". The well where she met the angel was called "Beer-lahai-roi"--"the well of the living one who sees me". Years later Hagar fled again at Abraham's insistence; the conflict with her boss had not abated after Isaac's birth (Genesis 21:8-21). She ended up with her son Ishmael--the father of the Arab peoples--in the wilderness of Beersheba, a desolate region. Out of water and resigned to Ishmael's death, she dragged him under a bush and said, "I do not want to see my son die". But the angel of the Lord reappeared to her to comfort her. After two banishments, God still saw her. Being seen by God is our security as it was hers.

If God sees His people, parents must do the same for their children. Yet so many things move us in the opposite direction as our eyes are distracted by the ever-present screens of TV and the computer in all its forms. We're wise to take Dr. Ota's common-sense advice, which the Bible told us about long ago. Our security rests in God's seeing us. Our children's security in our seeing them and making sure they know it.

That was the question our teen Bible Blast group grappled with last Friday, and they found lots of answers for the children and adults who gathered in Dordrecht, NL for a weekend retreat.

We'd been planning this event for quite a few months, ever since it had been suggested that we travel to the Netherlands to see a scale model of Noah's ark, which was opened in 2012. The Bible Blast group that meets every other Friday evening had been plodding through the book of Genesis, and has done some good thinking about the account of Noah and the global flood that has left traces in the geological record and the common genetic pool of the single human race. So why not go on Pentecost weekend to see a 1:1 model of what the ark may have looked like?

It was agreed . . . and then people asked if some of the parents could come along. Sure! In the end we numbered about 70 participants.

We had a great evening of fellowship Sunday evening at the youth hostel east of Dordrecht, and excellent discussions about the biblical account Monday morning. First, the children aged 12 and under put together a quickly paced dramatization of the flood story, from the calling of Noah through his sacrifice of an animal upon exiting the ark over a year later. Then the Bible Blast teens answered 28 detailed questions they'd researched a few days before while the adults listened (they'd also had the chance to find the answers during the four-hour car ride to Holland Sunday afternoon). To wrap things up, the adults reported on small group discussions they'd had around the question, "What should we do as parents and young people to imitate Noah's faith and obedience in times that may be very similar to Noah's? How can we encourage one another in this?"

The answers to those questions are worth noting:

Noah's day was similar to our own--corruption, violence, and evil hearts, as illustrated in pervasive moral decay, violent video games, the lack of integrity in politics and business, and the dishonesty of teachers who help their students cheat to pass exams.

Noah was righteous himself before he could be a "preacher of righteousness" to his world (2 Peter 2:5). Parents must be the same.

Noah's project, supported by his small family, had high visibility, and his contemporaries must have said he was crazy. Yet the steadiness of his sons under this pressure must have been largely a reflection of Noah's walking with God.

God gave Noah promises as he built. Only afterwards could he see God's faithfulness in the rearview mirror. He wrote down those things as a heritage for his children and for us. Christian parents can do the same for their children.

In many ways the world is not a safe place for our children. They are attacked with godlessness everywhere--on the way to school, among comrades, by some teachers, through the media, etc. Home therefore needs to be a safe place where those kinds of influences are pushed out.

Proverbs 22:6 needs to encourage parents as they engage in a long-term project of training their children in godly living.

Parents need a reality check when they consider the temper of our own times. So many are confused, lack courage, and come from cultures that give divergent patterns for training children. Parents are tired after a long week of work. Many are uninformed and uprooted from the sound advice of grandparents and the extended family. Parenting can't simply rely on "common sense", but needs divine revelation as its foundation. It starts with prayer and the right attitudes.

Christian parents must help children and youth understand that if they take a stand for Christ and the authority of Scripture, they will be in the minority. We have a spiritual enemy, including Satan himself and even governmental and educational institutions. We must be willing to go against the flow as a counter-cultural people, just as Noah and his family did for up to 120 years until the flood came.

To stand firmly families need to choose a sound church, set standards for family devotions (Scripture reading, prayer, Bible text memorization, singing) and start young. How many hours do we spend each week in the Word of God to know it better?

Imagine the very first conversation Noah would have had with his sons about the ark project after God had spoken to him about it--he must have exercized strong leadership and vision. We need that, too.

Our children monitor our spiritual growth and consistency. We are watched even when we think we aren't, and what we say and do matters in the little thngs as much as with the big projects we think will make a big splash.

The Bible does not flinch to mention Noah's sin of drunkenness. But despite his failure he is called a man of faith (Hebrews 11:7).

We need to be ready to admit openly when we are struggling or experiencing failure so we can get the help we need.

Despite the pressures of a godless culture, Noah and his wife were nonetheless granted the joy of finding believing wives for each of their sons. How encouraging for believing parents today when this search seems so impossible!

We have the advantage of the availability of the whole Bible, whereas Noah had so much less revelation of God's purposes. Our own day may not yet be as desperately evil as Noah's was. This gives us hope--if Noah could be faithful, so can we! Indeed, God expects more of us than He did of him.

Noah must have used the everyday situations of life as a chance to teach his grown sons about God's ways. We must do the same (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). It's important to have ministry goals as a family. That can be very simple things like cleaning the church together or being the welcoming committee on Sunday mornings before the worship service.

Noah knew God's character and did all God told him to do because he trusted God's wisdom. If we want our children to trust God that way, we must teach them to trust us completely as we trust God completely.

We left grateful for the opportunity to have been together, and for the great fellowship and mutual encouragement. Thanks, Noah, for what you've told us thousands of years later . . . you've left us a heritage as we hope to do for those who follow us!

Is the growing gap between rich and poor--even in wealthy Luxembourg--at the base of rips in our cultural fabric? Yesterday, 28 April, my wife and I made a visit in the city that illustrated the Bible's answer to that question.

Late in the afternoon Kathy and I attended the showing of "Blind Spot", a film produced by creative students at the Lycée Technique du Centre. Inspired by a photo exhibit of George Edward Nixon, a Canadian photgrapher (and himself a homeless man featured in the film), the students worked on the project for two years under the leadership of Claude Lahr in partnership with the Service National de la Jeunesse.

The documentary portrayed the everyday struggles of street people in Luxembourg city--unresolved personal problems, bitter cold, sleepless nights (or interrupted sleep), theft of personal belongings, etc. Many of the local street population actually attended the film showing. The atmosphere was a little rowdy and sometimes even a bit raucous. At the end of the 35-minute presentation one of the men who'd been interviewed--an articulate Luxembourgish fellow who'd arrived a little under the influence--tried loudly to answer questions from the crowd and even sat down to play a few bars on the piano.

George Nixon, the Canadian photographer who identified himself as the oldest one of the bunch, stated on film that half of a squatter's issues can be resolved when he stops blaming other people and starts taking his own responsibilities ("All the people on the street--it's their own fault. They're going to put the blame on somebody else, but believe me, it is their own fault. It's not that people don't have, uh, a lot of problems, but they have a lack of solutions for their problems").

We walked away from the film venue and waited for the bus back home. And that's when we felt the surreal grab-you-by-the-neck switch of worlds. We stood on the Boulevard Royal by the exit from a bank's underground parking area and watched glossy Audi SUVs and Porsche 911 Carreras roll up out of the lot and purr onto the boulevard. Once on the bus I listened (unwillingly) to a sportily decked out French businessman's phone conversation. Seated right behind me, he counseled someone (a friend? a colleague?) on how to buy oil futures and play the dollar against the euro. He was quite certain the next few months would see an increase in the value of something or other, followed by a steep dive by summer's end . . . so buy now and get out in July. He stepped out the bus door and kept talking, still plugged in and chattering away.

That's our town--the dirt-poor outcasts and the rich have-it-alls. (Well, I can't say that even the squatters in Luxembourg are "dirt poor"--many seem to have mobile phones, enough cash to buy cigarettes, and the possibility of a place to stay, should they so choose).But what struck me about both the film and the bus conversation was the common thread of covetousness and self-confidence. The French businessman was pretty sure he knew what was coming a few months down the road, though he could not guarantee he'd be around to see July. And even the street people were at the film venue plead for the rest of the city to "respect" them . . . and they said so.

I've often thought about the wisdom of Agur, son of Jakeh, in this regard:

"Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and lies far from me Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that is my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee and say, 'Who is the Lord?' Or lest I be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God". (Proverbs 30:7-9, NASB)

How easy pridefully to boast that we know what tomorrow will bring. How easy pridefully to blame others for our own choices. In both cases we become prisoners--in the first case, prisoners of our greed, in the second case, prisoners of those who have sinned against us.

The past may help explain where we are, but when we know our Maker through His Son, it need not determine where we go from here.